Preface; Acknowledgements; Introduction: new perspectives on the causes and management of systems crisis; Part I. Dynamics of State Power and Role: Systems Structure: 1. What is power cycle theory? Introducing the main concepts; 2. Measuring national capability and power 3. The cycle of state power and role; Part II. Dynamics of Major War and Systems Transformation: 4. Critical intervals on the power cycle: why wars become major; 5. Systemic disequilibrium and world war; Part III. Dynamics of General Equilibrium and World Order: 6. Prerequisites of world order: international political equilibrium; 7. World order and systems transformation: guidelines for statecraft; Part IV. Systems Transformation and World Order at Century's End: 8. Systems change since 1945: instability at critical points and awareness of the power cycle; 9. Is decline inevitable? US leadership and the systemic security dilemma; 10. Systems transformation and the new imperatives of high politics; Appendix: mathematical relations in the power cycle; References; Index.